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After Lance, Ian, Lilly, Jennifer and Allie moved Heath and his group back to the build site, Lance guided Dwain and Heath to two of the loaded trailers. One of the battle bots had tracks and the other had the eight wheels. “Thought you didn’t want wheels,” Dwain said, hooking the trailer up.
“Don’t, but we were pushed for time,” Lance told him. “In truth, I think it’ll be about the same. The wheels don’t turn directionally or pivot. One side gets more power to turn just like they were tracks.”
“Noticed they are bigger,” Dwain nodded to the battle bot.
“Had to,” Lance said. “Those damn shredders generate more torque than we accounted for, but we added more lithium batteries and welded quarter inch steel on the sides. That’s why these bodies are more sloped. Now they are harder to damage if some cock monkey, granny pussy eater shoots them.”
For some reason he couldn’t explain, Heath felt pity for the pirates. “Ready,” Heath said, standing up.
“Okay, we are setting the bots up in Hinkle first. Then we’ll come back and get the next trailers. On the way to battle bot site one, we are stopping at battle bot site two,” Lance told them. “We will go ahead and clear the field and clean them up, but Ian and I have to drop off a generator and hook it up. Those bots are sucking that battery dry and it can’t keep both fully charged. We’ll fix that later, but now we are just putting a generator at the recharging station. It will turn on when the battery needs help recharging.”
“Lance, Patrick and his group want to help,” Dwain said, and Lance just sighed. “Hey, they saw the bots and fell in love. Since the bots are sitting on the road leading to them from Girdler they are beyond thankful. They haven’t killed any near them. Stinkers coming from Hinkle just continue on up the road to the bots.”
“Fine,” Lance sighed. “Rhonda, you’re riding with Lilly and Jennifer in the diesel UTV hauling the gun bots. Allie, you’re with me in the buggy with Ian driving. Everyone stay close and on the radio, channel two. Questions?”
“Ian, you make sure Lance and Allie clear the road,” Jennifer said, moving to the UTV.
“You don’t have to worry,” Ian chuckled, climbing in the buggy. “Dino,” he called out, and Dino jumped in the passenger seat.
When the diesel trucks cranked up Lance cringed, climbing on the roof of the buggy and dropping his legs down in the sunroof. “Love the power of diesel, just not the noise,” he mumbled and helped Allie up, and she sat on the roof with her legs hanging inside.
Lance moved over two canvas bags of loaded magazines. “If this isn’t enough, we’re screwed,” he chuckled as Ian pulled down the driveway. Glancing back and seeing the others following, Lance glanced inside the buggy to see Ian patting Dino’s side.
“I swear, Dino looks happy to be riding in the front seat,” Lance mumbled. “Contact,” Lance called out, lifting his rifle after spotting three stinkers on the road coming up the draw. “Haven’t even reached the damn valley,” Lance moaned. “They followed the trucks.”
Lance and Allie snapped off shots to drop the three and Ian never slowed, but did dodge the bodies. Not fifty yards further, they met more and they took them out. “They can’t come up here,” Allie snapped, then squeezed the trigger.
“We take care of that today,” Lance promised.
When they reached the valley, they already had thirty stinkers down. Looking down the road, Lance saw a long procession of stinkers stumbling toward them. “Fine, assholes,” Lance grumbled as Ian turned left on the valley road heading down the valley.
Dodging bodies dropped on the road by Lance and Allie, Ian kept his speed at twelve MPH and it wasn’t easy keeping up and killing the stinkers. There would be small clusters and then open spots of a hundred yards, then a small group and next another cluster. When they reached Hinkle, Lance was on his sixth magazine and Allie was on her third.
Seeing the road ahead damn near packed, Lance grabbed his PTT. “Ian, pause twenty yards from the T. Let us clear those to the north, so they can’t move up behind Jennifer till we reach the field.”
“Copy,” Ian answered over the radio. When Ian stopped, he climbed out and kneeled down, staying well under Allie and Lance’s field of fire.
Sweeping his rifle left, Lance concentrated on the stinkers following the road through Hinkle to the second battle bot site. “No wonder the batteries are getting hit hard,” Lance mumbled, snapping shots off. “The count the last two days can’t be right at eight thousand for site two.”
It took ten minutes and sixteen magazines between the three to kill enough of the stinkers to the north before Lance called Ian over the radio. “Let’s go!” Lance shouted over the radio, changing magazines and saw his barrel smoking.
“Allie, glad we brought our back up rifles,” Lance told her, tapping the bolt release and chambering a round.
Shooting the stinkers ahead as Ian turned left to drive through the small cluster of houses that made Hinkle, Allie felt her bolt lock back. Ejecting the magazine, “I like shooting real targets,” Allie said, sounding rather cheerful.
“Some of the Beard Clan are behind me,” Jennifer called out, and Lance glanced back as he changed magazines. He saw two UTVs behind Jennifer as the buggy bounced around when Ian drove over the bodies.
“Ian, drive better!” Allie shouted, trying to time her shots with the lurching buggy.
“The damn road is packed with toes up stinkers, so how in the hell am I supposed to miss them?!” Ian shouted back.
Knowing her brother was mad, Allie didn’t answer after missing another stinker when the buggy lurched. The line of stinkers quickly filled in the void they had cleared, getting within thirty yards, and Ian slowed to a crawl as the buggy climbed over the bodies leisurely. Not bouncing bad now, Allie and Lance started racking up kills again, pushing the line of moving stinkers back to fifty yards.
It took them fifteen minutes to make it five hundred yards to the field or rather, the large yard a big house sat in. Ian drove off the road, speeding through the tall grass. “Everyone, pull by us and push them back and then we set up,” Lance called out over the radio.
The others pulled up beside the buggy and climbed out, clearing the stinkers back as Lance tapped Allie on the shoulder. “Allie, change guns,” he told her and climbed out. “Remember, the others haven’t trained with us, so make sure they don’t get in your line of fire.”
“They better keep their big stupid heads out of my way!” Allie shouted, putting her smoking AR down and reached down to grab another short barreled AR.
“Where do you want us?” Patrick asked, running over with his sons and David.
Lance pointed down at the ground. “You stay right here and cover the south with one of your boys. Get David and your other son to get on the other side of the buggy and cover north. Don’t go cowboy and get in Allie’s line of fire,” Lance told him.
“Got it,” Patrick said and turned to David.
The continuous suppressed shots soon fell to slow steady pops as the immediate area was cleared. Putting his smoking AR on the hood of the buggy, Lance headed over to the diesel UTV and unhooked the trailer. “Jennifer, get ready to dig the trench for the wire,” Lance called out.
Grabbing a bundle of engineering flags, Lance headed out in the yard with Ian. They marked out the playground for the battle bots as the others kept the stinkers back. When Lance and Ian both finished marking two sides, Jennifer pulled over and stopped at the line of small orange flags.
She climbed out to already find Lilly dropping the metal rod to dig the trench to bury the boundary cable. “You’re in!” Lilly shouted, climbing on the back.
Jennifer took off, moving down one line. Lilly was about to climb off to lift the trencher up, but Jennifer didn’t stop. Instead, Jennifer pulled ahead and turned left, making a loop until she was staring at the next line of orange flags and centered them, plowing the trench.
“Damn, that’s smart,” Lance admitted, watching Jennifer make a loop at the next one and plowing the third side.
“And much faster,” Ian said proudly.
Before Lance and Ian moved to grab the cable, Heath and Rhonda ran to the trailer the cable was on and pulled out the roll. “Feel kind of unneeded,” Lance mumbled, watching Rhonda and Heath lay the cable in the trench as Jennifer finished crossing the trench she started at.
Lilly jumped off the back and lifted the trencher up and Jennifer pulled over. “Where is the recharger station goin’?” Jennifer asked, and Lance pointed.
“You and Ian start on that. Lilly and I will put the recharging spots for the bots on the playground,” Jennifer told them and pulled off.
Patrick soon noticed it was only his group and Allie covering the others. He was almost certain Allie could’ve done it on her own, now that the stinkers were pushed a hundred and fifty yards all around them. They only had to kill a few every minute to keep the line that far back. He had no idea how old Allie was, but she damn sure could shoot with that tiny AR swinging side to side and snapping off shots.
Hearing the rumble of a diesel, Patrick turned to see Dwain backing up and guiding the trailer to Lance. When Lance held up his hand, Dwain stopped and the others moved over to a massive metal box that Patrick was taking for the battery, but it was bigger than the one at the other battle bot field.
Using one of the buggies, they pulled the battery off the trailer and then Lance called the group over, talking to them as Dwain backed up the other truck. They all worked on getting a metal box that was half as big as the first, but seemed almost as heavy.
“What are they doing?” Patrick’s oldest Drew asked.
Shrugging, “Don’t know,” Patrick answered, then glanced at Drew and saw he was looking at the area called the playground. Lilly and Jennifer were setting up metal boxes that stood two feet off the ground. Then, Patrick realized he had answered truthfully no matter where he looked.
When Heath stood up the ten-foot-wide parabolic mirror next to the new metal box, he looked at Lance. Lance came over with cables from the box and they connected to the pole the mirror was on. “Screw it down!” Lance shouted, and started hooking cables up from the battery to the new box.
Heath could tell there were four Stirling engines on top of the new box, but was lost. “Lance, how does it work?”
When he was done, Lance plugged a wire in the base of the mirror and it started moving. Heath stepped back as a small partition slid open on the side of the new box exposing the void inside, and Heath almost moved up to see what was inside. When the mirror started turning to the sun, Heath saw a bright reflection no bigger than a quarter move across the box and stop when the light reached the opening. It reminded Heath of a magnifying glass, just bigger and much brighter.
Glancing at the dish, Heath figured out the twenty-foot dish reflected the sunlight and concentrated it on the small mirror directly over the dish. The mirror focused the sunlight through the three-inch hole in the very center of the dish.
“It heats the box?” Heath asked.
“The solution mix inside the box,” Lance answered, tapping his laptop. “It’s called thermal energy storage. After the solution heats up, the Stirling engines will run longer into the night. Projections we have say all night, but this is the proving test.”
“It will get that hot?” Heath asked dubiously.
Reaching down, Lance grabbed a stick and held it in behind the opening of the dish. When the concentrated beam of light hit the stick, Heath squinted his eyes as bright light shone on the stick and then smoke poured off the stick before it burst into flames. “Holy crap,” Heath gasped as Lance dropped the stick, walking away and looking at his laptop.
“Twelve hundred degrees,” Lance grinned.
Walking over, Heath stomped the fire out as Dwain walked over. “Move your truck closer to the playground, so Lance can drop the kids off,” Dwain said with a grin.
Still watching in awe near the buggy, “One has wheels,” Drew noticed.
“Son, I understand the concept, but that’s it,” Patrick finally admitted, shaking his head as the tracked battle bot rolled off the trailer. As the bot turned and headed for the playground, Patrick noticed Rhonda, Kathy, and Robin walking around the perimeter picking up the orange flags and scraping the dirt into the shallow trench.
“Hey, dummies!” Allie shouted, and Patrick and Drew turned to her. “We have a job, quit staring! You don’t want me to get medieval on your ass!”
Turning away from the work, Patrick lifted his M4 up to shoot several stinkers to the north. “I just had a preteen girl ream me and tell me to get back in the war,” Patrick huffed.
As Lance tapped away on his laptop, Ian helped Lilly and Jennifer stand up the fifteen-foot-tall light post. After Ian hooked it up, the wheeled bot was driving off and the metal knobs scraping on the trailer made Ian cringe.
“Jennifer, will you and Lilly lead Dwain and Heath back for the next trailers?” Ian asked, and they both looked at him. “Well, since Patrick is here, Lance and I can drive the diesel over to that slope and set up the gun bot.” Ian told them, pointing to a south-facing slope just over five hundred yards away.
“The bot is right here, why so close?” Jennifer asked, but was heading for the buggy.
“That small road through the saddle leads to Cannon and Girdler. Plus, we want shit that shoots around each bot, in case more assholes are around,” Ian told them.
They nodded and stopped over by Dwain and Heath. With Jennifer leading in the diesel buggy, Dwain and Heath followed her off and Ian noticed there were almost no stinkers. Well, no moving stinkers. This road was a feeder road to the second battle bot site. Ian just hoped this third site would pull some of the work off the second.
“David!” Ian shouted, and David ran over. Ian pulled out a white board and handed it to David. “Go hang it on that light post facing up the road, so those coming can see it,” Ian told him, handing David a cordless drill and screws. Jogging out to the road that ran through the valley north to south, David went to work.
When he hung the board up David chuckled, seeing the message had been changed.
If you can read: We are Proud Man Card Holders
Do not approach or you will get eaten by Battle Bots and shot by snipers.
Do not touch any equipment or we will skin you alive, skull fuck you, then roast you slowly.
Break our shit and we will find you and kill everyone you know, then kill you.
Yes, we can see you. Male, female, young or old, touch it, you will die slowly.
This is our toy to rid the area of stinkers, build your own.
If you can’t read, please get closer so we can get rid of stupid.
Yours Truly: The Wild Ones
On the bottom was a picture of a person carrying flowers to a battle bot and a heart was painted over the battle bot. “Holy shit, they aren’t kidding about getting rid of stupid,” David gasped.
Larry, Patrick’s youngest boy, pointed at the picture. “Isn’t that telling people if you carry flowers, the bot won’t eat you?” Larry asked.
“That’s how I see it,” David said, grabbing Larry and trotting back as Lance climbed in the diesel UTV. Jogging past the parabolic mirror, David slowed his jog hearing the Stirling engines slowly starting up. “Those boys would’ve ruled this world,” he mumbled, picking up speed.
“Follow us,” Ian called back as David climbed in his UTV with Larry.
“Dad and Drew are waving us to get in the middle,” Larry said, and David glanced over confirming it.
Pressing the accelerator to drive out of the yard and over the road that headed west to Cannon but split and also led to Girdler, David stayed close to the back of the trailer Ian was pulling. Behind them, rock music started and Larry leaned out. “It’s coming from the bot and not the light pole, but I don’t know the song,” Larry admitted.
David chuckled, “War Machine by Kiss.”
When Ian drove up the slope into the trees, David started getting confused. Heath had told them the boys were setting up some kind of spinning gun, but David couldn’t understand why you would want a gun in the trees.
Ian pulled past a small flat area that wasn’t any bigger than ten yards square at the top of a ridge that overlooked the area. Climbing out, Lance waved them up as he and Ian pulled out chainsaws. “What the hell?” Larry wondered, and David had no idea.
When they pulled up and got out, Patrick and Drew joined them. “Cover us and just warning you, if a stinker gets us, we will shove these chainsaws up your ass,” Ian warned, pulling on a hard hat and flipping earmuffs mounted to the hardhat over his ears.
“David, you and Larry cover Ian, we’ll cover Lance,” Patrick said, following the boys back down the slope.
David followed Ian all the way down the slope to the tree line, fifty yards down the slope. “Why didn’t we just stop down here?” Larry asked, and David just shrugged.
When Ian cranked the chainsaw, both jumped and turned to see Ian attacking a tree. It seemed Ian had just started cutting when the tree leaned down the slope and then gave a snap as the trunk gave away and the tree crashed down. Barely pausing, Ian was attacking another tree and David glanced over at Lance thirty yards away, taking his chainsaw away from a tree as it crashed down.
Patrick and Drew were shooting to the west, but David couldn’t see into the valley because of the trees. Then it hit him, “They are clearing the trees on the slope to create a firing lane!” David yelled out as another tree crashed down. Then he realized, all the trees were being cut to fall down the hill.
Looking around, David saw none of the trees were very big. The biggest one he could see was barely twenty inches around and most others were no bigger than his leg. When Ian had reached them, David could see out over the valley floor and saw the wheeled battle bot as stinkers came from the south. The stinkers charged in the playground and were turned into chunky gore and flung out the sides.
Even with the chainsaws going, none of the stinkers to the south were trying to pass the bot and head for them. Turning to the west, David could finally see into the valley and could see the stinkers Patrick and Drew were shooting.
“Look, some of the stinkers are heading for the bot!” Larry shouted, pointing to the east. David turned to the road and saw stinkers on the road stumbling along heading for the bot even with the chainsaws roaring away. “About half are heading for the bot,” Larry noted, and grabbed his uncle David and pulled him up the slope back into the trees as Ian continued his advance up the slope.
Half an hour later, David saw the buggy and trucks return and just park in the yard of the house right below them. Then the buggy pulled up past the house, parking on the other side and they both saw stinkers falling on the road as those in the buggy opened up. “I wish we could help more!” Larry shouted out over the chainsaws, looking around and up the slope.
“They told us our job, and I’m sure they have a machine to shove that chainsaw up someone’s ass and it damn sure won’t be mine,” David told him and saw Dwain and Heath near the house with chainsaws, chopping down the lone trees around the large yard. “We are helping, otherwise they would be up here cutting. I’m betting they were going to change out cutting down trees.”
David was surprised that they were back up the slope by the buggies an hour later. Looking out at the valley floor almost two hundred feet below him, David shook his head at the field of fire the slope offered now. When the chainsaws shut down, David still heard saws in the valley and saw Dwain and Heath moving toward the saddle, still cutting lone trees and small groups down. Now the road through the saddle was damn near bare.
“David, come help carry this shit!” Ian shouted, taking off his hardhat and putting his helmet in the buggy. David was rather glad the boys left off the skull masks.
“Why didn’t you let us cut the trees? We can run chainsaws,” David asked, grabbing one of the tables that had a turret mounted.
“Needed the trees lying downhill and didn’t know you could,” Lance replied, wiping sweat off his face as they put down the table.
“Drew, Larry, keep covering us,” Patrick said, putting down his M4. “Ian, Lance, tell us what to move and where. At least, let us be strong backs.”
“I won’t argue,” Lance said, pulling his drinking tube off.
Larry watched as half sphere dome cameras on poles were put up. Then he realized the domes were protecting the cameras underneath like a roof. One attached to the table made from thick angle iron that had a turret mounted to it. The other was stood up to the side where Ian was setting up solar panels. Like the camera, Ian screwed a pole that had three legs attached to the ground. Then Ian had Patrick and Dwain grab the rack of five panels mounted side by side and attached the rack to the pole.
“That’s good,” Lance called out over the radio, and Larry looked down in the valley and could see people moving to the figures cutting down trees. When the saws were off, Larry grinned. Even from five hundred yards away he could make out Family Guy playing from the bot just like battle bot area two in the valley below him.
After the stuff was hooked up, Lance pulled out his laptop and then Larry realized it was a different one. “What are those?” he heard his dad ask, and turned to see his dad pointing at two shiny dishes aiming at the sun with a round dome in the center.
“One kilowatt Stirling engines,” Ian panted, then pointed at a metal bin. David grabbed the bin and Patrick grabbed stalks of angle iron. Ian had them bolt the stalks on the table, then he climbed up and bolted the metal bin to the top of the stalks.
Jumping down, “Sorry, but I know where to step and not break the gun bot,” Ian told them. When the turret moved, Patrick and David dove to the ground.
“Guys, I wouldn’t arm it with us right here!” Lance cried out, but never looked up from the computer.
“It moved,” Patrick gasped, and thought that explained everything.
“Larry,” Ian called out, attaching a tube from the box to the top of the turret. “Come here and I’ll show you where to stand.”
Slinging his M4, Larry moved over and Ian pointed at a small spot beside the turret that didn’t have electronics attached to the table. “Your feet are small enough to fit there,” Ian said, helping him up. “Patrick, David, bring over one of those five gallon buckets and that scooper.”
They carried the stuff over and were soon passing a scooper filled with half-inch ball bearings up to Larry. “How many shots will the box hold?” Larry asked.
“Sixty pounds or just over fifty thousand,” Lance mumbled, typing on his keyboard. “There is a spinning motor to feed the balls down, kind of like on a paintball gun.”
“I got this, David, get back on a gun,” Patrick said, handing up the scoop.
Grabbing his M4 David had to know, and moved over behind Lance and saw the camera’s view of the valley below. Across the screen, red dots were popping up in lines. Glancing up at the valley and then back to the screen, “Are you outlining fields of fire?” David asked.
“Very good,” Lance nodded. “I don’t want it shooting toward the playground. I’m telling you now, if you ever have to approach one of the gun bots, you approach them from the recharging area. Line the recharging area up with the bot and keep them lined up. That is the only safe field there will be, but I’m not going to guarantee it. I’ve set the range limit at five hundred yards, but gun bot can hit accurately up to a thousand yards. It could probably shoot further, but that’s the furthest I tested.”
“Um, we won’t get near them unless you and Ian are with us,” David informed Lance and wasn’t willing to discuss it. He and the rest of the Beard Clan found it hard to believe, Lance and Ian ‘Made’ the battle bots, but like his wife said, ‘They didn’t go to WalMart and buy them’. Now, they were putting in robots that shot. In truth, David felt like an idiot compared to Lance and Ian, and wasn’t afraid to admit it.
Reaching up, Lance grabbed his PTT. “Jennifer, pull everyone to the main road. I’m about to test fire,” Lance called out.
Just confirming his fear, David saw everyone sprinting to the vehicles like the hounds of Hell were chasing them. “Done,” Larry said, and Patrick just picked Larry up and sat him on the ground.
Larry put the scooper in the empty bucket and put the bucket on the trailer. Holding his laptop Lance moved over, pulling a pin under the metal bin and everyone heard an electric hum in the magazine box and ball bearings falling down the tube. Everyone except Ian stepped back. Ian stepped over beside Lance as he removed another pin at the top of the turret.
“How is the battery bank charging?” Ian asked, grabbing his drinking tube.
“Fifty-five hundred watts and the bot will draw twelve hundred at peak,” Lance answered, taking a deep breath. When they saw both boys tense up, Patrick and his group moved closer to the UTVs, getting ready to dive behind them. Lance pulled a pin from the disk and put it in his pocket. “Bot is armed but not active,” he called out, holding his laptop up and tapped the touch pad.
Ian moved over, staring over Lance’s shoulder and saw the house two hundred yards away on the screen. Lance tapped the screen and the camera zoomed in on the mailbox with a small + in the center of the screen on the mailbox. “Area clear?” Lance asked.
“Just some stinkers moving through the saddle,” Ian answered, and Lance hit enter and the gun bot hummed for a second before a sonic crack sounded and Ian saw a hole in the mailbox where the + was at. “Pretty good, less than half an inch from center,” Ian mumbled, and the humming stopped from the gun bot.
With wide eyes, the others had seen the hit on the screen, but they were looking past the mailbox. The ball bearing had passed through and punched a hole in the asphalt road. It didn’t ricochet off, the shot buried in the asphalt. They didn’t know how fast the gun bot was throwing those bearings, but knew it was faster than a normal bullet.
“Link is on. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Lance said, closing his laptop. “Follow us. The bot is armed but not active, so keep up.” Before Lance and Ian were in, Patrick and his group were already sitting in their UTVs, cranked up and ready to go.
Ian drove down the slope and then turned right, taking a spur down to the valley floor. When they were out of the field of fire, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. They stopped near the others and saw everyone standing around talking and keeping a casual eye out. Even over the blaring Family Guy, the shredder of the bot could be heard.
“You put the sign in the saddle?” Lance asked.
“It’s up,” Lilly said, walking over.
“Here it goes,” Lance said, and typed in a very long password. ‘ARMED & ACTIVE’ popped up on the screen in huge red letters. Five seconds later, everyone heard the soft crack as the gun bot started operation. Lilly looked at the screen and saw the cross moving on a stumbling stinker on the road. The stinker was outlined in the box and the camera zoomed in, centering the cross on the side of the stinker’s head and a soft crack sounded. Lilly watched the stinker’s head evaporate and the body took another step before dropping, but the camera was already moving to center on another stinker’s head.
“I like it from a distance. Sorry, I have a problem arming robots,” Lilly told him, but kissed Lance on the cheek.
Closing his laptop, Lance looked up the valley and grinned, not seeing any stinkers to the north. “Okay, let’s go take care of battle bot area number two,” Lance said, putting his laptop in the side by side.
“Okay, but you two will be the foremen and tell others what to do,” Lilly said, walking back to the buggy.
Feeling Lance turn to him, “Screw the card, brah, I’m tired. We’ll be foremen,” Ian told Lance, starting up the diesel UTV.
Ian drove through the grass heading for the road, but never got on the body-covered road. Instead, he drove on the shoulder. “Slow down, guys,” Jennifer called over the radio, and Lance turned to see Patrick pass them.
“Look, they have a snowplow on their UTVs,” Lance laughed, then David drove past and his UTV had a plow also. Ian saw David was just inside the path Patrick plowed of bodies. Ian pulled on the road in the ten-foot-wide cleared path. “We should’ve thought of that,” Lance admitted.
“Brah!” Ian shouted. “We can’t think of everything, and it’s nice to see other fuckers using their heads for something other than to hang a hat on!”
“Point taken,” Lance nodded.
